Need To Encourage Organic And Natural Farming Processes: Lokesh
The family cultivates mango, sweet lime, amla, coconut, lemon, jamun, guava, drumstick, custard apple and ramaphal crops: Reports
ANANTAPUR: Education Minister Nara Lokesh has cited a need to encourage organic and natural farming practices, stating that Zero Budget Natural Farming is among the state government’s major goals.
As part of his two-day tour of Kadapa district, Lokesh visited a natural farming field at Penikalapadu village in Muddanur mandal of Jammalamadugu constituency on Friday. He interacted with farmer Munagala Dwarakanath Reddy and his family, who have been practising integrated organic farming on their family-owned land for the past five years.
Dwarakanath Reddy and his brother Ramanareddy have been practising integrated organic farming on 17 acres. Their farming model combines crop cultivation, livestock rearing, poultry and fish farming to ensure sustainable and steady income generation.
The family cultivates mango, sweet lime, amla, coconut, lemon, jamun, guava, drumstick, custard apple and ramaphal crops.
Along with horticulture, they also rear around 250 country chickens, 60 sheep and undertake fish farming as part of their integrated agricultural model.
During the interaction, Dwarakanath explained that they drew inspiration from a 70-year-old organic farmer in their village, Lakshminarayana, and gradually adopted organic practices despite facing initial challenges. Agricultural officials had extended them the support and training in natural farming techniques at Tirupati and facilitated the start of a bio-research centre.
The family now prepares natural fertilisers and preserves 32 varieties of biodiversity seeds within the farm itself.
According to the farmer, the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has been completely eliminated from their farming operations. He informed the minister that the family earns nearly ₹3 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh annually from organically cultivated mango trees.
He expressed the confidence that natural farming could achieve remarkable results if it got more governmental encouragement.
Lokesh said excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides was damaging soil fertility and increasing the cultivation costs for farmers.
He reiterated that Zero Budget Natural Farming was a major objective of the state government and stressed the need to encourage more farmers across AP to adopt organic farming practices.
The central government was also actively promoting natural farming initiatives. Lokesh said the government was encouraging millet cultivation and extending support for micro-irrigation systems in Rayalaseema. Priority was being given to the restoration and development of chain-linked irrigation tanks.
